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IT'S PAINTING AND DRAWING HERE From Monday 25th. April

Mendes Steps Aside - For Now As many dedicated 007 fans now know, the big news in recent weeks was the decision of Skyfall director
Sam Mendes not to take on directorial duties once again for the next
James Bond movie, no. 24 in the series. The dramatic news was first
revealed by Empire magazine on March 6, and confirmed shortly
after by a statement from EON. Mendes explained that he feels he needs
to devote time to some other projects close to his heart, including his
upcoming theatre work. He also hinted that he feared he might ‘repeat’
himself if he did another 007 movie so soon. However, Mendes also
appears to be leaving the door open for a possible return to the series
in the future. Speaking at the Jameson Empire Awards ceremony in London on March 24, when Skyfall picked
up yet more well-deserved awards, Mendes said he had ‘definitely’ left
the door open for the possibility of another James Bond movie. And,
judging by comments made at the same event, Bond producers Barbara
Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have made it very clear they would like
him to come back. Broccoli, for example, was quoted by the media as
saying: ‘We haven’t given up hope... Maybe not for the next one... but
we will get him back again’. Her co-producer, Wilson, added (with
something of a mischievous twinkle in his eye): ‘We are working on him’.
Wilson also commented that they hoped that maybe Mendes will get
‘inspired to come back’. Logan Looks Back (and Forward) As part of all the publicity for his new play Peter and Alice, which stars Dame Judi ‘M’ Dench and the new ‘Q’, Ben Whishaw, the Skyfall screenwriter
John Logan gave various interviews to the British media during March.
In the process, he gave some clues about the likely direction of James
Bond in the two 007 screenplays he has been signed up to write. It is
apparent that he intends to build upon the complex layers to Bond’s
personality that were explored in Skyfall. One of the more revealing interviews was given to the Daily Telegraph on March 19. Speaking to the journalist Dominic Cavendish, Logan expressed great pleasure at the success of Skyfall and
also some astonishment at the whole Bond experience. Referring to the
London premiere of the 23 rd 007 movie, he said at one point: ‘I’ve
never seen anything like it in my life. Seeing that red carpet going on
for miles, and the thousands of people, it was overwhelming. What I was
really struck by is how benevolent it all was. I kept waiting for that
first shard of negativity – but it never came’. Logan: ‘Lots More Ideas For Bond’ The
51-year old screenwriter, who has now become something of a veteran
when it comes to screenplays, also spoke about aspects of the writing
process on Skyfall, including the confrontation between a
tied-up 007 and the main villain Silva (played by Javier Bardem): ‘When I
wrote that scene - two men speaking in a room for 10 pages - I thought
“There’s no way we’re going to be able to do this”, but Sam Mendes said
“Yes, go for it” and I think the audience really embraced it’. With
reference to his two future Bond screenplays, Logan also told the Telegraph: ‘There are lots more ideas for Bond I want to explore. We can deal in a complex way with these characters’. Logan’s Play Now Performing John Logan’s new London West End theatre production Peter and Alice had
its special press night on the evening of Monday, March 25, and there
was a wide selection of people from the British film and theatre worlds
in the audience, including the James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and
Michael G. Wilson. According to the London Evening Standard (March 26), the actual script for the new play had to be treated on a par with a 007 script during the making of Skyfall. Logan told the newspaper: ‘I met Judi and Ben through Skyfall – we
knew we were doing this play but we didn’t talk about it. It was our
own little private 007 secret. It was locked down – very quiet’.
Whishaw, who plays opposite Dench in the play (which has been described
as an exploration of the problems of living with an enduring celebrity),
told the Standard: ‘John gave the script to me when we were making Skyfall. But I didn’t really speak much to him during Skyfall. I didn’t see Judi at all (they had no scenes together) so it feels quite separate from Skyfall,
but I know for a lot of people it will be like, “Q and M are in this
play”’. Dame Judi, meanwhile, was full of praise for her young co-star.
She said of Whishaw: ‘He’s a really remarkable young actor,
extraordinary. He makes the person a real person, he’s a proper 100
carat gold actor’. The new play is now performing at the Noel Coward
Theatre in London, and has received some very good reviews from theatre
critics. Licenced to Kill and Thrill With release of Skyfall on
DVD, the new round of reviews of the movie (which we covered briefly in
our last Newsletter) has continued to flow strongly in the UK and
around the globe. One of the most positive in the UK came from the film
critic Mark Kermode, who is not an easy critic to please at the best of
times. Writing in The Observer in February, Kermode argued that, after the ‘shambles’ (as he put it) of Quantum of Solace,
it seemed touch and go whether the franchise actually had a future:
‘Enter secret weapon Sam Mendes who, 50 years after the screen debut of
this very British screen icon, has ensured that 007 has more bite,
relevance and popularity than at any time in his changeable career’.
According to Kermode, Skyfall has established ‘a template for a
new era of Bond movies that acknowledges the past while looking towards
the future...’. As far as Kermode is concerned, Mendes has ‘changed the
game’ when it comes to Bond as a character and his motivations. We bet
this verdict was music to John Logan’s ears, too. Double-O Heaven? New Plans for Piz Gloria If
there is one place that has been something of a ‘must visit’ location
for dedicated 007 fans it is undoubtedly the location for Piz Gloria in
Switzerland, the mountain-top site for Blofeld’s lair in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
Numerous Bond fans have made it their mission to go on a kind of
‘pilgrimage’ to the famous location in the Swiss Alps (including various
members of the JBIFC over the years). The
revolving restaurant and cable-car station, with fantastic panoramic
views of the mountains (well, as long as it’s a clear and sunny day!),
saw key action sequences for George Lazenby’s one-off iconic James Bond
adventure. However, perhaps surprisingly, apart from being able to
absorb the atmosphere of exploring such a famous James Bond movie
location, there has not been much on offer at the site for eager
visitors in search of anything ‘Bond’ in the past. Some postcards, film
stills, badges, souvenir bags, and the chance to drink a ‘007 coffee’
have all been available over the years, but that’s just about it. This
may be about to change, however - and in quite a big way. The Name’s... ‘Bond World’ The
famous site for Piz Gloria is being (what some might term)
‘Disney-fied’. While some Bond fans have welcomed this, not all fans are
comfortable with what is apparently being planned. According to a
report by Thomas Rottenberg in the German-language newspaper The Standard (March
21), work has started on a major make-over for the site, creating a new
Bond-themed experience, named ‘Bond World’. The site’s new 007
‘experience’ will include a Bond cinema, various multimedia interactive
elements for visitors (where they can add their face to the movie’s
famous ski chase sequences, for example), and some life-like
reproductions of all the James Bond actors. Lazenby is Back! The
new ‘Bond World’ experience at the Piz Gloria site will be officially
opened on June 28, and the very special guest to help launch the venture
will be none other than the star of the iconic film himself, George
Lazenby. The former 007 will also be able to see for himself the
life-size reproductions of all the James Bonds at the new site,
including Sir Sean Connery. Wonder what ‘the other fellah’ would think?
There are also indications that Telly Savalas (i.e. Ernst Stavro
Blofeld) will be popping up in some form somewhere at the site, along
with some SPECTRE guards. Meanwhile, anticipation is still building for
George Lazenby’s long-promised memoirs, which should include some
interesting insights into his filming at Piz Gloria and about his
general time as 007 in the heady days of late-1960s Hollywood. From Rigg With Love And
what of Lazenby’s famous co-star? She is as busy as ever, and shows no
signs of slowing down. Fans of Dame Diana Rigg, who was the other main
star of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, will be able to see
her on British TV in May. The former ‘Avengers’ star and Bond woman,
along with her daughter Rachael Stirling, will guest-star as Victorian
ladies Mrs. Gillyflower and Ada in an episode of the popular British
sci-fi series Dr. Who, entitled ‘The Crimson Horror’, which will be transmitted on BBC-1 on Saturday May 4. Double-O Who? Speaking of Dr. Who,
a number of Bond-related aspects to the world of the famous Time Lord
have emerged in the UK media in recent weeks. First of all, British
newspapers reported some fascinating revelations about Jon Pertwee, the
third actor to play Dr. Who, who sadly passed away in 1996. Back in 1994, Jon gave an interview to two young Who fans about his career, and they have now put this into the public domain to help Dr. Who Magazine celebrate
the 50th Anniversary of the cult TV series. In the interview, Pertwee
included some new information about his military service in World War
Two. The young Pertwee, it would seem, was a senior intelligence agent
who reported directly to Churchill! He worked for the UK’s Naval
Intelligence Division (NID), alongside future Bond author Ian Fleming.
Moreover, Pertwee was something of an expert at using espionage gadgets,
which apparently really impressed Fleming! It has often been remarked
that Pertwee’s tenure as Who (1970-74) was marked by his suave version of the Doctor having a fascination with gadgets. Perhaps this was no coincidence? Who on Craig A second Bond-related aspect to the world of Dr. Who emerged in an interview that the current Who actor, Matt Smith, gave to The Times Saturday magazine on March 23. At one point, Smith shared his thoughts on Daniel Craig. Smith, who was appointed to the role of Who in 2009, was a controversial choice at the time, and was given a hard time by the UK’s press. He told the Times magazine that, in a way, Craig is the actor he identifies with most: ‘He came into Bond about the same time I came into Doctor Who, and for both of us it was: “He can’t be James Bond” and “He can’t be the Doctor; he’s too young”’. Smith told the Times that he had watched Skyfall recently
and it was ‘just brilliant’. He felt relieved: ‘I was really pleased
that everyone’s lauding Daniel Craig now. Because I kind of empathised
with him’. Smith said that at the beginning of Dr. Who he, too, felt exposed and struggled, but his father said ‘keep going. You can do it’. Meanwhile, a third Bond related aspect to Who has
been played up in the British press: the new assistant to Matt Smith,
Jenna-Louise Coleman, said in an interview that she would like to play a
Bond woman one day. This bit of self-publicity worked a treat:
newspapers such as The Sun immediately highlighted this comment. Loss of ‘Mr. Lead’, 007 Trumpet Star The
JBIFC were sad to learn of the passing of Derek Watkins, the British
trumpet player who played on every Bond soundtrack. Derek died on March
22, aged just 68, at his home in Surrey, in the UK, following a lengthy
battle with cancer. Watkins enjoyed an amazing career, in which he
played with The Beatles, Elton John, Eric Clapton, and Frank Sinatra, to
name but a few. He also played alongside some of the jazz greats,
including Benny Goodman. Moreover, he played on the soundtrack of every
007 film from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace, and also contributed to Skyfall. His friend Philip Biggs, who is editor of the Brass Herald, told the UK’s Observer (March
24) newspaper that Biggs was without ego, ‘a fun-loving musician who
couldn’t get enough of life, who loved his family’. The UK’s newspaper The Times also
carried a detailed obituary of Derek on March 25, noting that his
signature high-note ‘screamers’ were especially apparent on Goldfinger (1964),
on which he played at the age of 19. The paper also referred to how he
was highly regarded by other musicians, including Bond composer John
Barry, who once said: ‘It is always a good feeling when one walks into
the studio to know that Derek is leading the brass section for you. He
never fails to deliver the goods in aces and spades’. Another fellow
trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, said: ‘When you speak of lead trumpets,
Derek is “Mr. Lead”’. Watkins Led the Way Another fascinating obituary appeared for Derek in the UK’s newspaper The Independent on
March 27, written by Brian Priestley, where further details were given
of his relationship to the world of 007, which started with him playing
on the soundtrack to Dr. No at the age of 17. According to Priestley, the Skyfall composer
Thomas Newman said: ‘When Sam Mendes went out on to the podium after
we’d finished recording and acknowledged Derek, you should’ve heard the
orchestra. He had to take two bows because people kept applauding him’.
Priestley also reminded readers that Derek was the natural choice for
lead trumpet when John Altman was asked to augment the St. Petersburg
tank chase sequence for Goldeneye (1995). Derek Watkins, 1945-2013. R.I.P. The Man With The Golden Voice The first episode of Neverwhere,
an adaptation of Neil Graiman’s cult novel, was broadcast on BBC
Radio-4 on March 16, and one of the key characters in the story is
played by the legendary Sir Christopher Lee, best known to Bond fans, of
course, as the deadly assassin Francisco Scaramanga in Roger Moore’s
second Bond adventure The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). Sir
Christopher’s highly distinctive voice was given to the character ‘The
Earl of Earl’s Court’ in the BBC adaptation of Neverwhere, a
man who is something of a Latin scholar and resides in the carriage of a
London tube train! Not many people realise that, as well as a wide
range of classic movie appearances, Sir Christopher was something of a
‘spy’ during World War Two (well, he was in the British army’s ‘Special
Forces’). But, perhaps understandably, he has always declined to go into
detail about this. Another one of his many talents is opera singing and
other forms of general singing (including heavy rock!) and, to
celebrate his 90 th birthday last year (2012), he released his second
Heavy Metal album! In January this year, the UK movie magazine Cinema Retro released
a fascinating video interview with Sir Christopher, conducted back in
May, 2012. Catch it if you can. In the interview, Sir Christopher talked
about his long movie career and about the problems of being typecast as
a particular type of actor (especially in relation to Dracula), and
about how he managed to address this by going over to America in the
mid-1970s. Did You Know? Apart
from Sir Christopher Lee, which other former Count Dracula (and
distinguished singer) did Roger Moore’s 007 come up against as the main
villain in a Bond movie? Answer: Louis Jourdan, who played Kamal Khan in
Octopussy (1983). Apart from his now legendary appearances in
musicals, Jourdan once played a very memorable Count Dracula in a BBC
adaptation of Bram Stoker’s cult novel, first transmitted by the BBC in
December, 1977. Interestingly, the two-hour BBC-TV vampire film is still
rated highly by critics and scholars as a very faithful adaptation,
even after all these years. And who can forget Jourdan’s half-bat Count
slowly crawling up the side of his castle? A whole generation of British
kids (and adults) could not turn the lights off for ages after seeing
that particular scene! BBC video released the film onto DVD in 2007. Bond Bits: Brief Items of News You May Have Missed Jason Solomons, the film critic of the UK’s Sunday newspaper The Observer,
clearly thoroughly enjoyed himself at the 2013 Oscars parties in
Hollywood. He used his column in the newspaper on March 3 to tell his
readers how he had spoken to former 007 George Lazenby (who was there
alongside former Bond woman Jane Seymour), and had also told Dame
Shirley Bassey that her Oscars-night rendition of Goldfinger had been ‘fabulous’. Dame Shirley gave him a big kiss there and then. Lucky devil!... Another showbiz writer doing a bit of Oscars name-dropping was Baz Bamigboye, of the UK’s Daily Mail. He used his column on March 1 to reveal that he had attended one of the post-Oscars parties and had watched Skyfall singer
Adele chin-wagging with Dame Shirley Bassey. He was also able to speak
directly to the Oscar-winning singer, who told Bamigboye that she is now
planning her third album, a follow-up to 19 and 21.
First, though, she has to sit down and write the songs! Adele said:
‘They’ll come when they’re ready, and when I’ve got something to sing
about’... Dame Judi ‘M’ Dench, along with Helen Mirren, graced the front cover of the UK’s TVTimes magazine
on February 9, as part of the magazine’s tie-in celebrations of the
UK’s 2013 Bafta awards, which took place on Sunday, February 11... There
was a short ‘interview’ with Dame Judi inside the magazine, but this
appeared to consist mainly of bits taken from previous interviews! The TVTimes piece
noted, however, that Judi had been ‘thrilled’ to be directed again by
Sam Mendes and quoted her comment that: ‘You feel great when there’s
someone you trust there on the bridge, a firm hand’... Blockbuster Bond: there was further evidence of the amazing knock-on effect of Skyfall on
the British film industry when it emerged on March 8 that the latest
007 movie also helped boost Britain’s second largest cinema chain
Cineworld during 2012. The UK chain recently purchased the rival
Picturehouse, and is now confident it will be able to sustain growth in
2013... News emerged in early March that author Sebastian Faulks, who penned the James Bond adventure Devil May Care in
2008 to help celebrate the 100 th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth,
has been commissioned to breathe new life into another much-loved
British creation, the characters Jeeves and Wooster, after being
approached by the P.G. Wodehouse estate... The acclaimed writer will be publishing Jeeves and the Wedding Bells in
November, 2013. Faulks, now 59, has had a long love for the eccentric
duo after first reading a Wodehouse story at the age of 12. Faulks said:
‘I hope my story will ring bells with aficionados but also bring new
readers to these wonderful books’... The
ever-busy Faulks will also be appearing live in conversation at the
British Library in central London on the evening of Monday, April 8,
when he will be talking about his work, inspirations, and influences,
with a particular focus on his recent best-selling novel A Week in December...
Speaking of P.G. Wodehouse, who was that playing the famous writer in a
BBC-2 drama about his internment in wartime France, screened in March?
Step forward Tim Pigott-Smith, the Minister in Quantum of Solace... Now pay attention, 007. Has ‘Q’ joined Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus? According to the Metro newspaper
(March 26), 73-year old John Cleese, former MI6 gadgets man in the last
two Pierce Brosnan 007 adventures, will provide the voice of British
aircraft ‘Bulldog’ in Planes, an animated movie from the Disney Corporation. The movie, which is a spin-off from Cars and Cars 2, will be released this summer, and two further Planes movies are being planned... There was some more coverage of the former Monty Python legend and ‘Q’ in the London Evening Standard on
March 27. The paper noted that the 73-year old star has now moved back
to London, after spending more than a year living in Monaco. He was
apparently cooped up in a luxury apartment overlooking the harbour in
Monaco, busily penning his memoirs. Should be an interesting read... Rosamund Pike, of Die Another Day fame in 2002, was interviewed in The Times Saturday
magazine on March 9. Pike, who played the treacherous Miranda Frost in
the movie, will soon be seen in the cinema again in Simon Pegg’s new
comedy about the apocalypse, The World’s End, due this year... Another familiar face from Pierce Brosnan’s Bond era, Halle Berry (who played ‘Jinx’ in Die Another Day in 2002) was profiled in the Metro newspaper
(March 26), which noted that she is planning to quit Hollywood and
eventually retire to Europe: ‘It’s where I want to end my days, that’s
for sure’, she said... It was announced in March that the singer Madonna, who had a small role in Die Another Day and
also, of course, sang the main theme song to the 2002 movie, has now
become the world’s first billionaire female pop singer. The 54-year old
star has also become the most successful female artist of all time,
having sold more than 300 million records... From MI6 to MI5: it was a real pleasure to see the return of Michael Kitchen in the TV drama Foyle’s War on
ITV-1 in the UK on March 24. The series was once cancelled by ITV, but
was then brought back due to public demand. Kitchen, who played Bill
Tanner, MI6’s chief-of-Staff to Brosnan’s 007 in Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough,
has now taken Foyle beyond the War and entered the murky world of
espionage in the tense post-War period of the early ‘Cold War’ between
East and West. Foyle also has to deal with an ‘M’-like female spy chief.
Hmmm, sounds familiar!... As
for Pierce Brosnan himself, in February he was awarded honorary
patronage of the Dublin Players Society at Trinity College, in Dublin.
His latest movie, a romantic comedy called Love Is All You Need,
is released in the UK on April 19. And, according to our spies,
Pierce’s own film production company, IrishDreamtime, is still very keen
to develop the long-planned sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair, which is still provisionally titled The Topkapi Affair... The Swedish beauty and former Bond woman Britt Ekland, who played Mary Goodnight in the man With The Golden Gun (1974), gave a very frank interview to presenter Piers Morgan for his Life Stories series
on British TV in March. The interview, which went out on the UK’s ITV-1
network on March 29, discussed many aspects of her colourful career and
her very eventful personal relationships with Peter Sellers and Rod
Stewart... So,
what next for Daniel Craig? It was announced on March 6 that he is no
longer involved with George Clooney’s star-studded wartime movie Monuments Men (see our previous newsletter). No reason was given, and Matt Damon has been added to the cast-list instead... It was interesting to note how quiet the Daily Mail showbiz
gossip columnist Baz Bamigboye became when his confident predictions
that Sam Mendes would return for Craig’s next Bond film (Bond 24) went
into, er, freefall. But Bamigboye deftly returned to the subject of
Craig and Bond indirectly on March 29. It would appear that the current
007 will definitely now be seen live on stage in the USA... We
reported previously that Bamigboye had revealed that there had been talk
about Daniel appearing opposite his wife Rachel Weisz on the American
stage in a new version of Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal. Bamigboye gave more details about this on March 29 in the Mail...
According to Bamigboye, contracts for Weisz and Craig to star in the
play as fictional husband and wife Emma and Robert are now in place, and
negotiations are ongoing to have the actor Rafe Spall play the third
key role in the play (the ‘other’ man who has an affair with Emma)... Daniel will apparently begin preparing for pre-production on Bond 24 once his run in Betrayal ends.
The new production of Pinter’s 1978 play will rehearse in August, start
in October in New York, and will run at the city’s famous Barrymore
Theatre for about 14 weeks...